The Legend of Zelda: Past and PresentThe Tale of the Dragon Sages
by Zenna Crell
Summary: When evils ancient, old, and new in origin, appear in Hyrule, the Hylian Knight Link must join forces with Erika, Mat, Ashton, and Aaron, beings from a different world to save his. Strangely, they have some connection with the first Link, the original Hero. Follows the Child Era. Some romance between original characters and OC's. I DON'T OWN THE LEGEND OF ZELDA.
1. Prologue: The End

Prologue

"No… No, please wake up!"

That voice… it was familiar. Familiar in all sorts of ways, but currently, it pained her to think of whom it belonged to. Why couldn't he have let her sleep? It was much easier to go that way than to stay awake. He knew that. He knew that she wanted to go that way. But then again, he made it his job to prevent her from doing things as she wanted. That was the reason why she was there… and also why the one who she had once considered to be her future husband hadn't been able to kill her like he planned to do.

The woman groaned as she gazed upon the bleeding form of the man she had fought beside. Her vision growing hazy, though the sky was bright, she grinned up at the ageless, handsome man she cherished and hated. "I'm dying… and so are you. You shouldn't have come for me and you know it. You had to be the Hero, and not just for Hylia…" Her breathing became harsher as she struggled for breath.

"I won't leave you. Not now. Let me take you to Hylia's temple. They can care for you there!" He lifted her back off the ground and onto his lap, gazing steadily at her face.

The woman shook her head, closing her eyes against the pain. "No, they cannot help me now. My wounds are beyond the capacity for them to heal. Besides," she opened her eyes to gaze at his face one last time. "You have to save the world."

"What is this world if you can't stay around to be in it?" he said, his voice echoing in her mind with melancholy. "You are needed much more than you know."

She laughed softly. Using her last bit of strength, she raised her hand to hold his cheek. "I know, and you know I feel the same about you… But that just doesn't seem to be the way it is, right?" She coughed violently, suppressing the urge to writhe in her Hero's arms. Even more softly, she whispered, "I just have two more things to tell you, you knucklehead."

"What is it?" he asked, resigned. He knew her too well. Even with her dying breath, he knew she would find something to nag him about. That was just the way she was. Ever the mother-figure, ever the one to get under his skin… Ever the one to cheer him up when he was lower than the sea…

"First," she sighed, "don't let them get you. If you have to die, then die with honor. They should NEVER have the pleasure of desecrating the body of the one who defeats them."

"I didn't plan on it," he replied dryly.

She smiled, and then whispered, the coldness steadily creeping into her mind and body, "Good. Then I can rest in peace…" In an undertone, she added, "At least until I am needed again…"

"What?" he questioned sharply, then he shook his head with a small grimace. "No, never mind. What is the second?"

Her smile all the more melancholy, she shuddered, then breathed, "Closer…"

He listened to her, for once.

"I love you…"


	2. An Unexpected Party Gathering

Chapter One: An Unexpected Party Gathering

Sighing, Erika glanced at the wall clock in her last period class, trying desperately to keep her focus and failing miserably. Finally, she was sixteen years old and technically allowed to drive. Sadly, she had neither license nor permit, and wouldn't have parental consent for THAT till she was eighteen… Really! Her day had been bad enough before that dreary thought returned to the forefront of her mind. With another woe-begotten sigh, she fingered the pendant at her neck. It was the Triforce, a present to her from her mother for her birthday. Her eyes strayed down to her "dragon skin" messenger bag backpack, remembering the other necklace she received from her mother for her birthday that wasn't school appropriate because of the very nature of the pendant itself. It was the Hylian shield and removable Master Sword that she really wanted to wear, but she wasn't allowed to do so on school grounds… but she brought it anyway! She planned on pulling the ornament out of her bag and around her neck the moment she was seated on the bus. The thought filled her mind with the sort of pleasure that she hadn't had all that day, especially when she remembered the look of surprise and admiration of her best friend's face when she unwrapped the beautiful necklace. She gave a small giggle and grinned to herself. It had been a couple weeks since that day, but she still remembered it clearly.

"Miss Chambers?"

Startled, Erika sat up with eyes as wide as death, more startled than a goose that had suddenly found itself plucked and ready for roasting. "Yes?!" she squeaked.

Snickers filled the air around her as her classmates whispered at the repeated air-headed response she gave the teacher not more than a half hour ago. Normally, Erika wasn't so spacey, but she really couldn't help herself. It was two weeks till summer vacation began, and she had her mind set on staying as much time as possible with her friends. She was sixteen. Heck, she _wante_d to get herself a boyfriend! Of course, the only real boy who she had considered dating became a back-stabbing jerk, but she didn't want that to hinder her relationships more than it already had.

"Would you be so kind as to explain what is so funny about the death of Romeo?" Ms. Claramont sneered, obviously enraptured with the story, Shakespeare, and Romeo himself. Translation: _Are you so bored that you have to find amusement outside my own, narcissistic world?_

Wishing dearly to be anywhere else (because she practically knew the tragedy tale by heart already), Erika replied steadily, her expression blank, "I find it hilarious that any man would kill himself just as his beloved was awakening in his arms. It intrigues me that he would be so foolish not to admit to his own folly before moving on with his life. People come and go, but self is eternal, and it is my own creed to not let my past interfere with my future." Translation: _Yes, yes I am, but what are you gonna do about it? I'm too smart for you, and I'm not afraid to sick all of the administration on you._

The room was silent for a full minute before Claramont stammered some unintelligible reply and turned her claws unto someone else she despised for their light attitude.

Rolling her eyes, Erika realized that Claramont probably had a worse time with men than she did, and that lifted her spirits from the pit that Claramont had the nerve to throw them into… Pit… Pit times two… Pipit! Erika covered her mouth as she grinned wider, recalling one of her favorite side characters from Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword. No need to upset the snake anymore than she had already.

Yawning, Erika looked down at her paper and saw that she has inadvertently written down the name of the boy who had broken her heart so long ago… Why did she do that? There were better MEN than the boy he was, and she should be looking for them, not him.

She returned to fingering her necklace just as the bell rang to signal the end of the school day. Erika calmly stood while all of the hooligans in her class raced out all exits, screaming in delight and fervor. Wrinkling her nose, Erika thought, _'And they're in high school?! By the way they act, you'd think they were in kindergarten!'_

She left the classroom without a word to Ms. Claramont despite the fact that she REALLY wanted to snap at her, and escaped out the back door. Erika began to pick up the pace as she heard the front buses start up. She made it up the steps and into her favorite, secluded seat situated halfway between the back and the middle of the bus just as her bus driver closed the doors. Without a word, Erika sat down and curled up, waiting for the ride to be over…

"I sometimes wish I could switch families with my friends. At least I'd be able to actually GO places instead of just home and school."

"I know what you mean! It's freakin' stupid that we have to live SO FAR AWAY. Why couldn't our 'rents have decided to live in town like normal people?!"

Sighing, Erika ignored the noisy people that she didn't like (AKA: all of the people on her bus), and put her headphones on to block out the outrageous clamor they always generated on Fridays. It always annoyed her that she had to put up with such animals, but there was literally nothing she could do about it that wouldn't get her in trouble.

With a start, she remembered the other necklace… Smiling, Erika grabbed out the wondrous, beautiful necklace and let it sit in her hand for a long minute. She gazed at it in awe and possessiveness, silently daring the jerks around her to have the audacity to touch her now. Grinning like a satisfied cat at Christmas with a dinner of turkey, Erika slid the long black chain over her head and let the necklace, with its absurdly long chain, flop against her belly. She was sorely tempted to draw the Master sword, but knew that, as blind and oblivious as the idiots on her bus tended to be, they wouldn't fail to catch her with a "weapon".

Nevertheless, she was content at last as the main theme from Wind Waker played from her MP3 player. Closing her eyes for a while, she let the whimsical quality of Legend of Zelda music whisk her away from her reality, till she fell into a light doze… But it didn't last.

The sudden cha-CHUNK of a flat tire and the wail of the old bus engine awoke her and upset the rest of the students. Her eyes wide, Erika sat up and peered at the panicked face of the old bus driver. Something was very, very wrong.

His face pulled into a determined expression, the bus driver pulled down the microphone so he could talk to his passengers. Erika was able to catch the last bit of his dialogue as she pulled the headphones away from her ears. "… once I pull over, you need to evacuate the bus. Luis, Beranndo, you help everyone out the back."

What was wrong? Did the bus blow a fuse along with a tire? The rough odor of smoke met her nostrils, and that's when Erika fully decided that she really needed a driver's license. A bus crash when she was ten, and now a freakin' broken bus. _'I really hate my school district. They are SO cheap, especially on the things that absolutely SHOULDN'T be cheap!'_

At last, the bus was pulled aside on a tire chain stop, and all of the students were able to evacuate the stupid thing. When Erika was safely away from the vehicle, she saw something disturbing, more disturbing than what she usually saw at school… An arrow. And not just any arrow, a _fire arrow_ was stuck in the bus's tire and setting the bus on fire. She watched as the flames leapt hungrily about the bus, devouring everything in sight, as the bus driver himself struggled to use the fire extinguisher. A hiss awakening her every sense, Erika ran in the opposite direction of the bus. She knew what was going to happen.

The bus exploded.

A blast of heat spurred her onward, into the safety of the surrounding ancient wood, and, with a half-formed thought of distance, the mountains. _'I really wish I had a cell phone right about now!' _she thought with regret. Why hadn't she begged her parents for one? Why?! Because she knew they could only afford so much with the salary the government paid her father, that's why.

With a good mile behind her, Erika finally stopped and collapsed to the ground, gasping for life-giving air. Dizzy, she stared blindly up at the sky… But then something weird happened. She saw something she knew wasn't real. And not something, rather, SOMEONE, and that someone was definitely not real. She must've developed PTSD, really quickly, to be seeing HIM there…

Erika sat up and shook her head, willing the world to stop spinning and become like she knew it to be: pitiless, cold, and empty. When she looked around, he was still there. Well. Okay, then… Aw, heck. If she couldn't beat the hallucination, why shouldn't she enjoy it? Besides, it wasn't everyday that she got to meet Dark Link. Of course, his lighter counterpart, on the other hand… now THAT she'd be willing to stay crazy for. As it was, she was still trying to get her head around the idea that she was hallucinating such a sexy creature. But why not? She already lived in a world of her own creation to hide from the horrors of the one she lived in. Why shouldn't she bring a familiar face into her world? Even if that face belonged to the evil shadow of the truly sexy beast she admired.

But, the thing was, what should she say to him? Because, really – she was afraid she'd fangirl all over him, TRY to glomp him, and end up with more scratches and bruises than before, therefore ruining the illusion. She didn't have the chance to react to Dark Link's appearance, for he had motives of his own on being there.

Dark hoisted the girl and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, as if she weighed nothing more than a robin that had suddenly perched on his frame. Erika was still for a moment as she stared at the ground… then she began to struggle. It dawned on her that Dark was indeed very solid and a threat. Heck, he was probably a creepy cosplayer! Erika writhed, kicked, and punched his back with all her might, but only succeeded in ticking him off.

"Let me go!" she cried shrilly. The blood was rushing to her brain, and it only made her panic rise to dangerous levels. "Let me go! Let me GO! LETMEGO!" She thrashed about as much as she could, but to no avail.

"What?!"

Startled, Dark turned suddenly towards the unfamiliar voice that interrupted Erika's ear-piercing tirade. Erika seized the chance and gave Dark a swift, concentrated kick to the gut. She could almost hear the bruising and felt the flesh beneath her shoe give way, and it freaked her out. Still, when Dark doubled over in pain, she didn't waste the opportunity.

As she rolled away from the cosplaying-kidnapper, Erika saw the owner of the voice to be one of the girls from her bus. Though Erika didn't like them at all, she didn't wish for them to die… Therefore, she shrieked as she escaped, "RUN, Kyla!"

Erika ran and ran, not caring what direction she was headed as long as it put her farther away from Dark Link. Her stamina was never any good, however, and she was ready to collapse much sooner than she needed to be. Panting, Erika paused beside one of the larger trees, relying on the ancient tree for support.

Slowly she regained oxygen to her brain, and with that, she slid slowly to the forest floor, for the first time in her life not worried about whatever bugs could be there to crawl all over her. Obviously, the kidnapper knew more about Erika than she could've supposed – that, or he was a really good tracker – because he found almost immediately. She hadn't even had time to vaguely organize an escape plan!

"Moop!" she squealed as she struggled to her feet once more, taking off at a dash.

Naturally, Dark Link caught her right away. She was out of shape, she admitted, and she never really enjoyed running. Not to mention that she was about a foot shorter than Dark. She didn't even have the breath to complain as he hoisted her off the ground and over his shoulder. As she caught what little air she could, she was able to cognitively assess her captor. He hadn't even grunted as he hefted her. She envied the fact that he could run and then lift her without breaking a sweat.

Before long, Dark stopped in a glade-like clearing about the size of Erika's living room. In the very center, there were two ancient trees standing as guardians, locked in a stiff embrace as if they were one tree. Before he sat her down on the trees' large roots, he pulled a length of rope out of a hidden pocket. Bewildered, Erika wondered, _'Where did THAT come from?! It's too huge to have suddenly pulled out of some pocket!'_

Dark Link methodically tied the young woman to the tree on the left, leaving it just slack enough for her to breathe properly, but not to slip away. Erika was too tired to struggle. It had been a long day before, and she had a feeling it was going to get much longer.

With a final knot at her stomach cinched, Dark Link stood, sneered at Erika with disgust, and walked away. Suddenly, adrenaline levels in Erika's blood spiked as she saw Dark's retreating back. What if he was leaving her there to die?!

"You're coming back, aren't you?!"

Dark Link said nothing.

"You can't just leave me here!"

And then he was gone. Out of sight. She heard nor saw anything more after he took five more steps into the brush.

The silence was unbearable. Even though Erika professed a strong image of silence, she was used to having constant noise around her. On the bus, at school, in public, or at home alone, there was always SOMETHING that was working or speaking. But the forest was utterly mute. Ordinarily, there would be bugs or animals making some sort of sound, wouldn't there? The noiseless forest unnerved Erika, and she found herself rambling to herself just to stop the incessant hush.

"Well, this is just great. One minute I'm running from an exploding bus, the next I'm getting tied to a tree by a Dark Link cosplayer. What next? Will a flying donkey and a pegacorn coming running up to me and tell me I'm five years old again?!"

Feeling paranoid, Erika checked for just that. When nothing came forth, Erika went on rambling about her day, from beginning to the present.

"… and that's how I ended up here, waiting for the cosplayer to show up again… Cow, I hope Mama will be okay. I know she wanted to go plant her baby corn plants outside today…"

With that thought stuck to her mind, Erika began to scream. She screamed, yelled, shrieked, and cried out for help. What more could she do, really? Helpless and despairing, Erika hung her head and sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I don't think I'll be coming home for a while…"


End file.
